


The Lights Are On

by TryingCrying



Series: One Man Mob [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Oscar Pine deserves better, Oscar Pine protection squad, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Whump, listen its so late, no anything we die like men, no shipping to be found here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 07:58:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17240465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TryingCrying/pseuds/TryingCrying
Summary: Oscar's life is more complicated that he'd like it to be. It only gets worse when he learns a little too much about Ozpin's secrets and suffers the consequences. Amid her growing suspicious, Ruby has to walk the fine line of trying to help her friend and trust her teacher. In the end no one really wins.





	1. Chapter 1

Finding the bathroom in the middle of the night had been so much easier at Beacon. Ruby had the path memorized, and often would stumble through her team’s shared room without even bothering to turn on the lights. But here was unfamiliar, and only served as a stark reminder of why they were no longer at beacon. The house they’d taken refuge in had more than enough space, but when night fell in Mistral the barren rooms felt eerie rather than inviting.  


So Ruby chose to turn on the lights as she crept quietly from the couch, stepping carefully over Nora who had rolled onto the floor in her sleep. They were all so exhausted that even the harsh glow of the hallway light didn’t wake them. No one stirred, Yang’s familiar snoring pausing for only a second as she rolled over. It felt good to have everyone back; Ruby allowed herself a sentimental moment in the doorway, memorizing what her friends looked like in the rare moment of peace.  


An ear pressed to Qrow’s bedroom door told her that his snoring was as loud and steady as ever, and after a moment of listening she rounded the corner to the bathroom. One hand against the smooth wall guided her, but she stopped short in the middle of the hallway.

Something was off.

As her eyes adjusted Ruby dropped smoothly into a better combat stance, making a smug mental note when she realized how readily the hand-to-hand posture came now. The bathroom door was right in front of her, standing partially open, but she didn’t move any closer. Instead she focused on the instinct buzzing in the back of her brain. It wasn’t until she was holding her own breath in anticipation that she realized what had set her off. She had heard breathing that wasn’t her own coming from somewhere in the hallway. Now in the silence it was clear. Someone else’s ragged breaths filled the air. The sound was thin and strange so very far away from the sound of her teammates sleeping peacefully behind her.

She could make out the shape of a silhouette in the bathroom doorway. Someone was standing there, so motionless it could have been a manikin leaning against the wall. They hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights, standing over the sink in complete darkness. Ruby’s first instinct was to call out, but her voice died in her throat. Who was missing? Qrow was asleep in his room…she’d seen Blake on the coach…Yang…Maybe it was Jaune? No, she remembered almost hitting him when she stretched in the darkness. It had to be…

“Oscar?” she called, voice all whisper and whooshing air. She hadn’t even noticed he wasn’t asleep in his usual spot.  
She could see now that it was him, but there was no reaction his name. No change in the tension in his stance, the uneven breathing just grew louder.

“Oscar what’s wrong?” This time Ruby snapped out of her stupor enough to take a step forward and turn on the closest hall light. The harsh yellow spilled into the bathroom, and when Oscar still didn’t react she moved forward and pushed the door open all the way.

He looked like a ghost of himself. The light made him look so much older than she knew he was. It played over his acne scars, made the edge of a vein in his forehead stand out. His freckles were almost lost in the shadows. He was shaking slightly with each breath, hands clenched white knuckled against the rim of the sink. If his body language hadn’t given it away, she caught the fear in his eyes when he turned his head at her approach. His usually brilliant eyes had become unsettling, not quite focused on her, not quite focused on anything. Just as quickly as he’d turned to her, he glanced away. She knew that she was looking at Oscar, in body and mind, but that only made seeing the terror in his face more difficult.

“Ruby?” His voice was what made Ruby’s heart really start to jump. He didn’t sound like himself. But he didn’t sound like Ozpin either.

“I’m turning on the light.” She warned him, and slipped the switch up. He looked a little better in the light, a little less like a Grimm.

“Ruby.” This time it wasn’t a question, he knew she was there next to him. But the situation only seemed to make him more agitated.

“I’m right here, Oscar.” Ruby stepped closer slowly. “Talk to me, tell me what’s wrong.”

Bless his two souls did he try. Between breaths that shook his chest Oscar could only manage incomprehensible whispering. Sounds that might have been words or names, a growling mumble of frustration. He couldn’t explain and she couldn’t understand, try as they might.  
He tried to say something that sounded like her name again, but immediately gripped the sides of the sink harder and dry heaved like him might vomit, though only more gasping breaths came up.

She hesitated to touch him, but he was so out of it he barely noticed when shed did. Ruby wished Qrow was here, she wished anyone was here, she’d even settle for Ozpin at this point. Oscar’s skin was hot to the touch despite his uncontrollable shivering. She took her palm away from the back of his neck and traced what she hoped were gentle reassuring circles against his shoulder.

“Are you sick?”

“Lamp!” he barked and met her eyes through the mirror. Ruby was so shocked at the response she almost laughed out loud, but caught herself.

“Lamp?” She reached for the light switch on the wall, thinking that he wanted the lights off again. Then she stopped, mid-motion. “The Relic?” Ruby’s eyes fell to where it was still attached securely to Oscar’s belt. In its smaller state it barely gave off any light at all, but the power it held was apparent like a fog in the air.

“Oscar, is something wrong with the Relic?”

Oscar was fighting back another round of retching. “He…he, he does…. does…not…. I can’t…. It…. I…” He cut himself off with a noise so strained and alien Ruby didn’t even know what to call it.

“Okay okay. Just, umm….” Ruby floundered, at a loss for how to help her friend. “It’s okay! The lamp is fine, it’s right here, it’s safe. So there’s no reason to worry, right?”

Ruby reached towards it and Oscar flinched away. She couldn’t tell if really was afraid she’d hurt the lamp or him, or if she’d just startled him by moving too quickly. Either way she backed up and held her palms up. “It’s safe, Oscar. We’re going to protect the Relic, I promise.”

Oscar dropped his head back down, staring into the streaked bowl of the sink and mutter something to himself that Ruby couldn’t make out.

“Listen, you really should lie down. But I’ll, um. I can get you some water first. That’ll make you feel better. Or coffee? Uncle Qrow always makes me coffee when I don’t feel good. Weiss says I put too much sugar and cream in mine, but I could make it less strong. Or tea! We have tea, I’m pretty sure. Oh, I don’t remember and now I’m rambling. But I’ll get you something to drink, alright?” Was he hallucinating? Did he have a fever? Of all the times for one of them to fall ill.

“No…” Oscar hissed, though Ruby sensed it wasn’t in response to her question. “Stop stop stop stop.” He rocked on his feet slightly, head shaking feebly in time with his mantra.

“I’m getting someone.” Ruby turned to back away but his hand clamped onto her sleeve with surprising speed and strength.

“Ru…” he tried one more appeal to get her to understand. “H-he…. I…. can’t. tell.” He spoke each word like it hurt him. “Secret.”

Ruby paused at his first two syllable word of the night.

“Secret?” Ruby’s gut twisted with an entirely different kind of fear. “What’s a secret Oscar?”

Oscar tried to answer, but before he could his knees gave out under his weight. Oscar crashed toward the floor, and if Ruby hadn’t been standing within arm’s reach to grab him, he would have cracked his head on the sink. He fell as dead weight into her arms, eyes rolling white.

“Oscar!”

The second they were both on the floor he curled away from her, pulling his arms up around his face. He threaded his shaking fingers into his hair, holding so tight Ruby was frightened he might hurt himself.

“Help.” Oscar whimpered.

His voice sent a chill down Ruby’s spine. She couldn’t do this alone. Didn’t know how to help him. She needed to understand what he was trying so desperately to tell her, needed to bring his fever down, needed to keep him from panicking, she needed…

Ruby turned back to the long hallway and filled her lungs to scream. “YANG!”


	2. Chapter 2

Ruby slid into Qrow’s room with all the manic energy and disregard for his sleep as she usually did, but this time the urgency in her voice pulled him from his dozing haze in an instant.

“Uncle Qrow!” Ruby didn’t even make it to his bedside before he was sitting up and shocked completely awake.

“Whassit?” Qrow slurred, though Ruby could tell his speech was slow because of lack of sleep instead of booze this time. He stumbled out of bed before his legs were fully ready to function, fumbling in the dark for a light and his weapon. Ruby grabbed his arm and pulled him along out into the hallway.

“Something’s wrong with Oscar.”

She didn’t have to say anything else before they broke out into a run.

In the time they were gone Yang had at least gotten Oscar out of the bathroom. They had only managed to make it to the kitchen, but the wider space and softer light had him calmer already. Oscar had sandwiched himself between the corner of the cabinets, sitting half propped up by the solid surface, leaning his face against the handle.

“What happened?” Qrow swept into the room, his presence sweeping in behind him like a strong wind. Ruby could hear the others stirring, and hoped the added attention wouldn’t make Oscar’s state worse. She caught Ren’s eyes down the hallway and all it took was a silent shake of her head before he and Weiss were shepparding the others away from the scene. Ruby felt her heart swell in gratitude, and made a silent promise to do something, anything, nice for the others as soon as she could think clearly again.

“Ruby?” Qrow snapped her back into the task at hand.

“I dunno.” She hovered nervously as Qrow knelt on the wooden floor across from Oscar. Close enough to be at eye level, but far away enough to give him some room. Yang stood from where she’d just been trying the same thing, and started shuffling around in the kitchen for a kettle.

“Hey.” Qrow kept his voice soft, his shoulders held in a relaxed posture that Ruby could tell was fake. Qrow’s face still bore the red marks of where he’d been sleeping with his wrist folded up against his chin.

Oscar looked a little better. His face was streaked with fresh tears and he looked at Qrow with the same urgent unfocused stare he’d fixed Ruby with. But at least he was no longer hyperventilating.

“I just…I found him like this.” Ruby supplied in the silence, whispering out of nerves even though everyone was awake by now. “I can’t get him to tell me what’s going on.”

Qrow nodded, taking in the details of the scene. Cautious because of years practice, careful because he had to be.

“Kid?” Qrow reached out a questioning hand, but pulled it back. If it had been Ruby, she knew he’d have ruffled her hair. But Oscar was still a very new addition to their party. Even if Ozpin had been with them before, his youngest re-incarnation was still a mystery in a lot of ways.

Oscar hugged his arms over his knees, still trying to talk. More just small humming noises now than actual words. He took long, measured breaths, even though sometime they jittered in the remnants of hiccupping sobs. He rocked, every so slightly.

“You with us?” Qrow pressed, this time reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder.  
Oscar opened his mouth to speak, but before he got the chance to, he was interrupted by a flash of yellow as his eyes filled with light. It was immediately apparent that Ozpin was with them instead.

“What…” Ozpin’s gaze took in the kitchen sluggishly. His sudden shift in body language and voice was jarring no matter how many times Ruby saw it. She watched as one hand found the lamp still at his side, clutching the top ring absently.

“Ozpin?” Qrow asked, shooting a glance over his shoulder at the sisters, but all they could do was shrug.

“What’s going on?” Ozpin asked. He moved like he was going to stand, but Qrow held out a hand, more as a gesture to keep him down than any actual force.

“Everyone’s fine.” Qrow assured him. “but the kid’s having a rough night. We’re just trying to understand why.”

Ozpin looked blankly back at him. “Something….is wrong with Oscar?”

“I, uh…” Ruby piped up, cursing her own voice for cracking a bit. “I got up in the middle of the night and Oscar was, well. I found Oscar and he was scared and shaking and we didn’t know what to do.”

Ozpin took in the information studiously as always, brow furrowed. “Did he say anything, Ruby?”

“Not much.” Ruby shook her head. “He kept trying to tell me something, but he…. I couldn’t understand.” Her gaze drifted to Ozpin but she looked back to Yang right away.

“Hmm.” Ozpin added.

“He did say something…about the lamp.”

“The lamp?” Yang asked from behind her, but Ruby was too busy watching Ozpin’s reaction to look at her sister.

It was the way that—at the very mention of it—he clutched the lamp to his chest. The move wasn’t protective, it was possessive. Ozpin’s face betrayed the fear he felt, though Ruby could see him trying to hide it. She wanted to call him out. She wanted to shake him.

“But the lamp’s right here.” If Yang had picked up on the same reaction Ruby had she didn’t show it. “What’d he say, exactly?”

“Just the word, just…lamp.” Ruby shuffled, the need to pace building in her legs like steam trapped in a pressure cooker.

“Well that could mean anything.” Yang turned the kettle in her hands, having officially given up on making coffee. “Does Oscar know something we don’t?”

“Don’t you guys live in the same head?” Qrow asked, drumming his fingers against the floor. “Why don’t you know what’s going on?”

Ozpin laughed, but it was dry. “Share is a strong word here, Qrow. I do inhabit Oscar’s brain, so to speak. But that doesn’t mean-. It’s quite complicated. But…let me see if I can understand what’s happened.” Ozpin closed his eyes and breathed deep, Ruby had seen him do the same thing back in his office any time he was asked a difficult question.

There was a moment of silence before Ozpin surprised them all by laughing. This time the chuckle wasn’t wry or dismissive. “Oh.” He sat up straighter, and this time Qrow let him. “Oh, I see.”

“Care to fill us in?” Qrow seemed less amused.

“It seems nothing is wrong with our young friend.” Ruby breathed a sigh of relief that was a little too audible in the quiet kitchen. “A nightmare. Seems he just had a nightmare.” Ozpin smiled, the dimples in Oscar’s face showing. “The poor boy’s just a little embarrassed is all. And sleep deprived goodness knows.”

“That’s what that was?” Ruby asked, the unease in her chest only growing. Of course it was. It had to be. Ozpin shared a body with Oscar for crying out loud, he’d be the first to know if Oscar was sick or in trouble.

Ozpin nodded. “Tells me he used to get night terrors quite often back on his home farm. Poor boy. Can’t remember what set him off this time, but that’s how nightmares are, I guess. I think it might have been a Grimm of some sort? A spider perhaps? Quite the reasonable reaction, all things considered.”

“So the kid’s not dying?” Qrow tried to flatten a strand of hair on the back of his head. “And the lamp hasn’t been stolen?”

“The lamp appears to be perfectly fine, and Oscar just needs a good night of sleep.”

“So what you’re telling me, Oz, is that I can go back to bed?”

Ozpin smiled. “I think we all should.”

Ruby stepped forward and knelt next to Qrow so that she could really look at Ozpin. She bit her tongue against her first instinct to accuse him out loud. But that wasn’t a night terror. She’d seen students at beacon have them, members of her own team, Ruby had even experienced them herself. But this……this had been something different.

“Can…. could I talk to him, maybe?” Ruby tried to hide the unease settling deep in her stomach. Hearing Oscar’s voice come from his own mouth, normal and calm and no longer strangled by fear would do a lot in this moment to set her mind at ease. “He seemed…. I’m just worried about him professor Ozpin.”

“I’m afraid now isn’t the best time.” Ozpin took to rubbing his face, trying to clear it of dried tears. Had he answered too fast? “Our young farmhand is already resting. Exhausted from all this, no doubt. You can ask him about it in the morning.”

Qrow growled, pushing himself up from the floor. “The train to Atlas leaves in, what, four hours? You won’t even have to wait long for morning.”

“And you don’t remember what he was trying to tell me?” Ruby swallowed. “It seemed important.”

Ozpin considered the question for another long moment. “Hmm. No luck, I’m afraid. Ah well, such is the nature of nightmares, right? Gone the moment we’re truly awake. Who knows if he’ll be able to remember anything either. But I can imagine the whole ordeal was quite a lot for Oscar. Probably best if we drop it.” He looked at Ruby.

“I guess. As long as he’s alright.” Ruby tried not to grind her teeth, feeling desperate as Qrow stood and cracked his back.

“Sleep now, questions tomorrow.” He chided, following Yang down the hallway to scatter everyone who had been eavesdropping out of sight.

Ozpin shrugged, but the lingering fear in his posture was still there. Ruby couldn’t help but state. What aren’t you telling us, Ozpin?

“Only Oscar knows now.” Ozpin sighed, dismissive, which left Ruby wondering how much she’d been wearing the question on her face.

If Yang had said something so cryptic Ruby would have called her out on it. Would have elbowed her and demanded to know if that was supposed to irksome or if they were all just low on sleep. She would have gotten an explanation for something that didn’t feel right in her gut. But this was her professor. This was her professor and her friend, and never did she imagine that those two forces might be in opposition. Oscar blink twice if you’re in there.

“Well.” She took one last stab on instinct. Ozpin was the one to teach her to trust her instincts after all. “I guess that’s just his secret to tell, isn’t it.”

But the hazel eyes that blinked back at her were steady and unshaken. She couldn’t tell if it was Ozpin or Oscar looking back.


End file.
